Dark Voyage, Sharp Objects

I was quite satisfied with the following two reads: Alan Furst's Dark Voyage and Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects. Dark Voyage is a story set in the early 1940s, where Captain Eric DeHaan sails his Dutch freighter Noordendam, under the guise of a Spanish vessel Santa Rosa, across European waterways on cladestine operations against the Germans and the Russians. It is a highly credible portrayal of wartime Europe, peppered with espionage and love.

Sharp Objects, which is more disturbing, focusses on Chicago-based journalist Camille Preaker who was despatched by her agency to her hometown Wind Gap to cover the death of two young girls whose teeth had been brutally extracted by their murderer. As she investigates the story, she finds herself ensnarled by the ghosts of her past and trapped by the vices of the present: drugs, sex, alcohol and abuse. A bloodily revolting book which is hard to put down once you begin reading it.